How should we report a case of animal abuse?

Spain is one of the European countries with the highest rate of abandonment and animal abuse in all of Europe . Although society is increasingly sensitive to cases in which animals suffer some type of abuse, we still have to make progress in legislation that severely punishes this type of crime. Every day we find terrible cases that once judged, the penalties are insufficient, becoming ridiculous. In Spain you don’t go to jail for mistreating an animal, even if it causes death.

Proof of the backwardness that we have in animal rights is that, in 1997, the Maastricht treaty , promoted by the European Union, described animals as “sentient beings” for the first time, leaving behind the concept of animals as things or objects. In Spain, Law 17/2021 , of December 15, amending the Civil Code, the Mortgage Law and the Civil Procedure Law, on the legal regime for animals ( Disposition 20727 of BOE No. 300 of 2021 ) in which animals are considered “sentient beings” arrives 25 years later.

This should not discourage us and we must continue denouncing any situation that we consider leads to suffering to an animal, in this way both the administrations and the judges will become aware of the dramatic situation of animals in our country.

How to know if an animal is subjected to some kind of abuse or mistreatment?

In 1993, in Great Britain, the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) formulated the five freedoms or basic needs that should be guaranteed to animals :

1. Need not to suffer from hunger and thirst.
2. The need to be comfortable.
3. Need not to suffer pain, injury and disease.
4. Need to be able to express their normal behavior.
5. Need to be free from fear and stress.

We have to be very aware that seeing a dog living in bad conditions is not the same as seeing a dog being brutally beaten by a person.

In Spain, the national animal protection law has not yet been published, so we must abide by the 17 animal protection laws of the 17 Autonomous Communities , in which case they would be administrative complaints. Then there is the Penal Code that in its article 337 contemplates animal abuse both by action and by omission , these cases the complaints are transferred to the court.

How to react if we find ourselves before an animal that is being beaten?

1. The first thing is not to lose your cool, nowadays everyone carries a mobile phone with a camera, take photos and video to obtain evidence .
2. Call the Local Police, National Police or the Civil Guard explaining in detail the seriousness of the situation. If the process takes longer, and when the agents arrive and the animal is no longer being beaten, at least there will be the necessary evidence to report the case .
3. If the events occur in a home, it is very effective for all the neighbors to sign an affidavit indicating the events.
4. If the aggression occurs on public roads, and the police do not arrive on time, try to see where that person is going and be able to point it out to the police so that they can be identified . Evidence is useless if it is unknown who that person is.
5. If the police do not come, sometimes it happens, you should contact an association in the area that is a specialist in complaints so that they take the pertinent actions and request the precautionary withdrawal of the abuser.
6. Never confront the abusive person directly , unless the animal is in imminent danger, in which case telling them that you have called the police will stop them. These people are not only aggressive towards animals, they are also aggressive towards people.

Where to report if we find ourselves before an animal that is in poor condition?

Here we refer to all those animals that are kept in unsanitary conditions, tied up with little mobility, without water and without food, sick, extremely thin, with injuries. Farms with caged animals, crowded into cages without the minimum conditions of hygiene or mobility . In conclusion, any situation that we consider inappropriate for an animal.

1. Take photographs and videos of the situation of the animals and call the Local Police of the municipality or the Seprona of the Civil Guard to report the place and that they can turn inspection.
2. Contact an association in the area that can simultaneously file a complaint about the events and follow up. Unfortunately, there are many complaints that remain in a drawer without being processed, leaving the animals in the same situation of helplessness and the person responsible without any sanction.
3. Inform by Registry (for the record) to the town hall, it is its competence to manage these administrative complaints.